It's a good idea to have in mind what kind of freshwater aquarium fish you want to keep in your freshwater aquarium setup before you purchase an aquarium. Some fish only grow to be an inch or two, whereas other types of tropical fish can grow 12 or 13 inches or more in length! Knowing what kind of fish you want will help you decide the size of the tank they will need. If this is your first time with an aquarium, it may be a good idea to start with a 10 or 20 gallon aquarium setup for now and stock it with some smaller and hardier species.

Choosing fish for your can be hard. Fish are usually not what they seem, and you should never pick a fish just based on how it looks. This article will help you choose your fish for your freshwater aquarium.

I picked up a couple of gold fish like 10 days ago

Water chemistry in freshwater fishkeeping generallyrefers to two difference concepts: pH and hardness. While pH is easy totest and simple to understand, hardness is quite a complex conceptbecause it means different things in different contexts.

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Tropical freshwater aquarium fish reside in a wide range of water habitats from fast-flowing mountain streams, to great lakes, to slow-moving rainforest rivers. Each of these biotopes, besides having unique fish species, has unique water properties due to environmental factors. Because fish do come from unique natural water sources, their water in captivity should have similar characteristics. To recreate natural settings, the aquariast should have some knowledge of basic water chemistry, specifically pH, water hardness, and the nitrogen cycle.

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Is there anything I can do to soften the water for freshwater fish

The cichlids have to be close to the top ofany list of hard water fish. While many are adapted to soft, acidicwater conditions (not least of all the ever-popular angels, rams, anddiscus), by far the majority prefer hard, alkaline water. All thecichlids from the Rift Valley lakes -- Lakes Malawi, Tanganyika, andVictoria -- fall into this category, as do many of the species fromCentral America and from Asia. Now, having said this, not all of thesecichlids make good community fish. So while keeping a Rift Valleycichlid aquarium is certainly one option for the aquarist in a hardwater area, the focus of this article is on those species that will dowell in a community setting. On the other hand, a tank set upspecifically for these fish can be extremely rewarding. These fishrange from tiny, shell-dwelling forms rather like gobies through togiant predators and schooling plankton-eaters. Any aquarist living in ahard water area should certainly consider keeping these 'freshwatercoral reef fish' -- in terms of colour, activity, and variety, RiftValley cichlids are hard to beat.

Aquarium Water Hardness | Tropical Fish Success

So pulling all these issues and observationstogether, it is obviously that mollies are much more demanding fishthan most aquarists assume. But the key things to get right can besummarised fairly easily: All mollies need very clean waterwith no nitrite and as little nitrate as possible. Thewater needs to be warm, and hard, alkaline. Mostaquaria are slightly too cool for mollies to really thrive, and thesoft and acidic water the majority of aquarium fish enjoy is positivelyharmful to mollies over the long term. The addition of marine salt mixisn't essential -- but it will offset any lapses in water qualitymanagement and will raise the pH and hardness levels to where theyshould be. Table salt, or tonic salt, is perhaps better than nothing,but because it contains nothing to harden the water, it is far inferiorto marine salt mix in terms of benefits. If you're going to addsalt, the exact amount doesn't matter because mollies will acceptanything from freshwater to full strength seawater, but in terms ofbenefits against cost, aiming for 20% seawater (SG 1.004) would beabout right. At this salinity, your freshwater-adapted filter bacteriawill not be harmed, and the amount of salt needed would not be verygreat, about 7.5g/l (1oz/gallon).